Stockholm

july 31: we've been here 3 days now... stockholm is very pretty. we think of it like a mini-san francisco. we saw 6 priuses (2 black!) as opposed to 2 we saw in london... ;) we flew from london to stockholm on the 29th. there was a thunderstorm from the airport to the city center.

we did a lot of walking around kungsholmen the first day here, hitting the rådhuset and the stadshuset. connie even got to sit on the pier and sketch! we got back that evening and shopped for dinner. cooking in the hostel was fun, it was a huge kitchen!

on the second day, we got up early - it got super sunny early in the morning! we had breakfast at the hostel (yummy breakfast). then we head out to try to t-centralen to activate our rail passes; which, if you have ever been to scandinavia - everything closes early and sunday is pretty useless... :P we ended up heading out to gamla stan (old town). we failed to find the ice gallery, it was closed. afterwards, we head over to the moderna museet. we didn't quite enjoy the art by paul mccarthy, but both liked giacomo balla. (chaffee bought postcards.) after the museum visit, we had a picnic lunch on the opera steps and headed home for a nap. when we got out to the ice bar later, it would seem that the refrigeration has malfunctioned and so we couldn't go in.

today, we got up late... but rented bikes and headed out to t-centralen and got our tickets activated and passage booked to berlin. we then rode out to djurgården and rode around the island. it was overcast, but beautiful. we found a little beach which connie slipped and fell on a slippery rock. hopefully, the cut on the knee will be the only injury on the trip. we rode through to ladugårdsgärdet and then back to downtown. we made another reservation at the ice bar and then headed up to the observatorielunden. it was a nice little place to see the whole city. after returning the bikes, we headed back to the hostel and showered. we had dinner at operakällarens bakficka tonight - swedish meatballls & salmon. and then it was ice bar finally! :) we are back, mostly packed. we have to go to bed early tonight - have to get out the hostel by 7:45am... we are heading out to utö tomorrow, it's a 3.5 hour boat ride out to the archipelago. :)

next post should be from berlin! :)